Legislative Intent and Legislative History
Legislative intent refers to what lawmakers had in
mind in passing an act or statute. Judges, attorneys, historians,
and others study intent for guidance in interpreting a statute.
Legislative history is the written and spoken record that
documents the stages in the passage of a bill or resolution
as it goes through the legislative process. Legislative
history is used for discovering sources of information
about the legislative intent.
Click on series number links to go to more complete descriptions
of the records.
Basic Research Steps
- Identify the Utah Code section you
wish to research.
- Find which session law created the language.
- Determine which bill created the
law.
- Trace the procedural history of the bill
during its passage.
1. Identify the Utah Code section
you wish to research.
The Utah Code Annotated (series
83238) is the state's compilation of general public laws
or statutes currently in effect and contains notes documenting
the history of the section. Notes may also include related
court rulings and reference to other records that may be of
assistance to your research. Each edition of the code has
an alphabetical subject index.
2. Find which session law created the
language.
Use the information in the notes of the Utah Code Annotated
to go to the individual session laws published as the Laws
of Utah (series
83155).
Example:
"History: C. 1953, 63-2-103, enacted by L. 1991, ch.
259, §10; 1992, ch. 280, §15" tells us this particular
section or paragraph of Utah Code Annotated 1953 was originally
enacted in 1991 by an act found in Laws of Utah (1991), chapter
259, section 10 and that it was amended in 1992 by an act
found in Laws of Utah (1992), chapter 280, section 15. You
need to decide if you want to research the law as it was first
created (in the example, the 1991 laws, ch. 259, sect. 10)
or review the laws that amended it (in the example, the 1992
laws, ch. 280, sect. 15).
3. Determine which bill created
the law.
The Laws of Utah show laws passed during each legislative
session and signed or permitted into law by the governor for
that session only. Find the copy of the Laws for the session
of interest to you. Look up the chapter number and the section
number that you found listed in the history section of the
code. On the first page of your session law chapter under
the chapter number you will see the bill number. You need
to know the year and bill number to further trace the law's
history.
4. Trace the procedural history of the
bill during its passage.
A. Find and review the actual bills. A bill is a
proposed statutory enactment. In the broad sense, "bill" also
refers to resolutions and memorials. The Utah State Archives
holds copies of the bills as they were introduced and modified
during the legislative process (House Working Bills, series
432; and Senate Working Bills, series
428). A working bill shows the text of the bill and revisions
and has appended information (usually in the form of a log
on the backing sheet) showing committees to which it was referred,
the results of votes on the bill, and other actions taken.
The series includes introduced bills that did not pass.
The Archives also has bills passed bills by the Legislature
and filed by the Lieutenant Governor's office after being
submitted for the governor's action (Legislative Bills, series
4076); most recent years are still in the Lieutenant Governor's
office. The text matches that published in the Laws of Utah
but these bills contain a signature sheet with signatures
of the officials of the House and Senate, and usually the
Governor and Lieutenant Governor.
Bills from more recent sessions are also available online
through the legislature's
web page; the bill summary and status reports provide
the appended information on actions taken. Bills produced
by the territorial legislature, 1851-1896, are found with
the other documents produced by the legislature in series
3150 held by the Archives.
B. Review the Bill Drafting and Research Records (series
7073) if the bill was created since 1980. The Office of Legislative
Research and General Counsel provides assistance in bill drafting
and is required to review all bills prior to introduction
for constitutionality. Drafting records may contain useful
background information about the source or the purpose of
the bill. The Archives has 1981-1989 on microfiche at the
Archives Research Center. These records are available online
on the legislature's web
page for bills dating since 1990. Records for current
sessions remain with the office until scanned and put online.
C. Review the legislature's Journals. The journals
record the activities of each chamber of the legislature on
a daily basis during the legislative session. Most volumes
are indexed so you can look up the bill number and find the
pages the on which it is mentioned. The earliest journals
recorded the activities in detail, sometimes including speeches
or discussion; more recent journals just note the actions
taken more briefly. Actions include referrals to committees,
votes, and transmittal between chambers.
The Utah State Archives has copies of the journals including
those of the entire legislative assembly, 1851-1880 (series
3145); those of the House, 1882 on (series
456), and those of the Senate, 1882 on (series
409). Both the House and the Senate and most law libraries
also hold copies, and the most recent journals are online
with each session's records on the legislature's
web page.
D. Locate and review the appropriate committee minutes.
Standing committees are those which meet during the legislative
session and interim committees are those which meet during
the rest of the year to study potential legislation in depth
and make recommendations to the legislature. Both the journals
and the back of the working bill should mention the standing
committees to which the bill was sent (before the 1920s, the
working bill itself is likely to include a report from the
committee). The standing committee minutes record a summary
of the committee's activities and determinations; legislative
committees do not normally keep verbatim records of all deliberations.
The Utah State Archives has the House Standing Committee
Minutes, 1967 on (gaps) (series 3159); the Senate Standing
Committee Minutes, 1973 on (gaps) (series 18459); Interim
Committee Histories, 1967-1989 (series 7230), and General
Session Preview Reports (series 22117) which summarize the
activities and recommendations of the interim committees.
The legislature's web
page also has standing committee minutes for recent sessions
available electronically, and for interim committees 1986-ongoing.
Standing committee audio recordings for the Senate since 1994
are available through the Archives (series 21084) or through
the Senate (most recent 3 years).
E. Listen to floor debates. The Senate
and the House
have audio copies of floor debates available to the public.
The Senate floor debates date from 1965-present and the
House
floor debates date from 1957-present. The Utah History Research
Center provides access to House floor debates from 1957 to
1989, for more recent and all Senate floor debates please
contact:
Legislative Information Center
W320 State Capitol Complex
(801) 326-1600
The journals
will give you relevant dates.
F. Review governors' legislative files. Gubernatorial
actions may have influenced the drafting of legislation or
indicate how an act was implemented. Many governors kept files
on legislative bills with copies of the bill text and related
correspondence. To see what gubernatorial records are available,
see the online guide to Legislative
History Records. Those of the most recent governor normally
remain in the governor's office until the end of his time
in office.
G. Check other sources. Sometimes the governor or
legislature will create special task forces or commissions
to study potential legislation and issue reports of their
findings. State agencies may also have filed reports. Contact
the Utah State Archives or the
creating agency for holdings. Though an unofficial source,
newspapers provide a contemporary view of the legislative
process. Contacting lobbying organizations, former legislators,
or persons who testified before committees may be useful if
they retained copies of their papers.
Researching special cases.
Records of the 1895 Statehood Constitutional Convention, series
3212, are available from the Utah State Archives and
online
from the Utah State Legislature. They cover the
proceedings of the convention which wrote the
initial
constitution for Utah's transition from a territory to a
state. A copy of the original constitution as published
in 1898 is
available through the online exhibit on Utah's
Road to Statehood. A copy of the current constitution
is available from the home page of the Utah
State legislature.
Citizens may also sponsor legislation through initiatives
and referenda. Election papers, 1851-1976 (series
364), Initiative Petitions, 1958 on (series 10824), and
Voter Information Pamphlets, 1975-present (series
21810) include copies of text submitted for the ballot.
All may be researched through the Utah State Archives, except
for the most recent 5 years of initiative petitions which
remain in the Elections
Office.
For further assistance.
To obtain access to records in their custody, contact the
Utah State Archives research
center; the Legislative
Information Center,
the Utah
State House of Representatives, or the Utah
State Senate. The State
Law Library, University of Utah Law School's S.J.
Quinney Law Library, and Brigham Young University
Law School's Howard
W. Hunter Law Library also have most of the
publications necessary for this research, but do
not have unpublished documents.
To hire someone to research legislative history, try contacting
Legal Career Services or a University of Utah Law
School student.
Other law school students or attorneys may also be available
for hire.